Text Engine was developed to offer cell phone users a means to search the web using their text messaging service. This is great news for educators and students in low-income and rural communities.

And that's a good thing, because while smartphones are popular, there is still a great need for text-only services in low-income and rural districts. There is also a need in districts like NYC that empower students to bring their own devices to school, but don't have the means to enable students to connect to the internet.

The purpose of this article is simply to remove some of the negative connotations around smartphones and to consider new possibilities which we have at our disposal. In order for students to use smartphones in school responsibly, it is important that we set limits and rules beforehand.

There is mounting evidence that complementing or replacing lectures with student-centric, technology-enabled active learning strategies and learning guidance—rather than memorization and repetition—improves learning, supports knowledge retention, and raises achievement. These new student-centered blended learning methods inspire engagement, and are a way to connect with every student right where they are while supporting progress toward grade level standards.

As I was looking through my Scoop.it listings I came across this blended learning option shared by Dennis T OConner. I like how the infographic addresses learning styles, student centered approaches and newer education trends like gamification.

Every so often when I’m tweeting or emailing, I’ll think: Should I really be writing so much?

I tend to get carried away. And for the times that I do, it sure would be nice to know if all this extra typing is hurting or helping my cause. I want to stand out on social media, but I want to do it in the right way.

Curious, I dug around and found some answers for the ideal lengths of tweets and titles and everything in between. Many of these could have been answered with “it depends,” but where’s the fun in that?

Solid research exists to show the value of writing, tweeting, and posting at certain lengths. We can learn a lot from scientific social media guidelines like these. Here’s the best of what I found.

Interesting. I have to disagree with blog length - 1600 words (about a 7-minute read) might be good for SEO, but it's a long time to expect readers to stay with you. Respect their time and keep it short

At first glance, Quiet Time - a stress reduction strategy used in several San Francisco middle and high schools, as well as in scattered schools around the Bay Area - looks like something out of the om-chanting 1960s.

How do spiritual practices transform what we typically think of as being secular spaces? Fascinating. And, who are "spriitual practices" for? I love how the assumptions of the article/research busts open yet another pardigm!

From the Article:While Quiet Time is no panacea, it's a game-changer for many students who otherwise might have become dropouts. That's reason enough to make meditation a school staple, and not just in San Francisco.

does Virtual Reality will be omnipresent and ubiquitous in 5 years. It is hard to find now. It is completely missing in education. The question is, who will take a leadership role and fill the gap? Why not you?

What does this mean for religious education? Great opportunity to create meditative/contemplative opportunities for engagement, meaning-making, sharing experiences of The Spirit and Human Potential! Wow! The question is how!

This article is an expansion on the idea of virtual reality and what it can do for us. It explains that virtual reality has the possibility of providing us with real life work experiences. Mentions the oculus also and discusses the potential of providing many people across the world at once a unique experience of the scenario in real time. Author states he himself is jumping on board and others should also try filling the gap between VR and online education. Technology allowing people to have a in-depth life like experience before having to really experience it is obviously important and will be massive if done properly.

Hospitality in the classroom and digital pedagogical practices encourage participatory pedagogy and collective action. This model of learning and teaching emphasizes the shared responsibility between all members to contribute to...

Like Derrida’s theory of language, critical digital pedagogy encourages the freeplay of intellectual rigor; it acknowledges discourse as communal, the multiplicity of decentered learning environments, and collaborative construction; it rethinks the materials of communication and the mutability of meaning; it celebrates the networked nature of the critical work of learning, teaching, and being.

"Hospitality in the classroom radically rethinks the “territory” of the learning space because it alters the rights and obligations of both students and teachers". The notion of hospitality speaks the host's openness, welcoming, inviting, and .caring nature. Hospitality elevates the learning space.

Relationships are at the centre of education. It is no longer teacher-centred or learner-centred. In a sense, teachers and students are learning alongside each other. I am not sure it will always be the teacher leading the way although they have to be willing to know when to let go and when to take charge. Content is still incredibly important in that unless it connects to the lives of teachers and students it is not practical and meaningful. Technology is rarely seamlessly integrated.

Every so often when I’m tweeting or emailing, I’ll think: Should I really be writing so much?

I tend to get carried away. And for the times that I do, it sure would be nice to know if all this extra typing is hurting or helping my cause. I want to stand out on social media, but I want to do it in the right way.

Curious, I dug around and found some answers for the ideal lengths of tweets and titles and everything in between. Many of these could have been answered with “it depends,” but where’s the fun in that?

Solid research exists to show the value of writing, tweeting, and posting at certain lengths. We can learn a lot from scientific social media guidelines like these. Here’s the best of what I found.

Interesting. I have to disagree with blog length - 1600 words (about a 7-minute read) might be good for SEO, but it's a long time to expect readers to stay with you. Respect their time and keep it short

The correlation between literature and empathy is becoming increasingly strong as researchers examine the issue. In "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined," Steven Pinker states that the "human capacity for compassion is not a reflex that is triggered automatically by the presence of another living thing." But he goes on to discuss how being exposed to the stories — both fictive and non — of others does encourage adopting those people's vantage points. And it's that adoption, that understanding of such, that breeds compassion and empathy.

Pinker concludes, "Technological advances in publishing, the mass production of books, the expansion of literacy ... all preceded the major humanitarian reforms of the 18th century.

This is article confirms how I've been using "the power of story" in the work of Building Beloved Community - i.e., helping people tear down the identity walls that divide them from other people. Thanks Steven Pinker for the affirmation!

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